Hello!

My name is Gabriel, 27, from Germany, been simracing for about 5 years. I'm also active on SRS and Racedepartment, and have done some leagues there and with other communities as well (SRC Super GT being the most recent).

I like old(ish) cars and vintage racing. There's an event for classic racing cars not too far from my home - going there and hearing a hot 911 or Ferrari prototype is a real treat. I myself only own a 25 year old Miata and my daily driven car that will be twenty this year

I've heard about your CanAm championship (Austin's video on Youtube), went and tried the cars and now I want to sign up!

Yes, I was with BHR for the Super GT season. I was planning on doing a few VLMS races with them later, but there were no open spots that season and nowadays I can't commit to a set training schedule on TS for multiple hour and driver races. I think a single driver one to two hour event (like the Super GT season was) will work better for me.

I watched that session from the pitwall with Denis Jenkinson, another avowed Villeneuve devotee, and we looked on in wonderment as Gilles repeatedly screamed past, constantly correcting the steering even in a straight line. He was clearly moving at an entirely different speed from anyone else, and Jenks – cap dripping, glasses misted up – was almost lost for words.

At one stage Jacques Laffite came and joined us on the pitwall, and he, too, was mesmerised. “Look at him,” he said, as the Ferrari skittered by at 160mph. “He’s different from the rest of us. On a separate level…”

That day, in the soaking wet, Gilles was about 10 seconds a lap faster than anyone else... 10 seconds a lap... At the Glen.

Gilles... Siempre con el mejor.

Timo

_________________Visit Intersection Diaries: the tale of a young racing career.. And like us on Facebook.

Overrated maybe, but only because there is some wish for a kind of racing that is more wild and unruly than what is the norm in motorsports today. Which is why we are interested in racing pretend race cars whose real counterparts are in lots of cases older than ourselves, I guess.

Don't worry though, as a simracer I put more emphasis on consistency than outright speed

I think that in terms of car control and driving ability there have been few if any drivers better than him. He is in the league or Senna and Clark, and those are no longer humans but Gods with a special gift reserved only for one driver each many generations. Your quote about the rain in WG reminds me of the epic charge of Senna at the wet Donington. Those feats are not at the reach of but a few gifted ones.

The problem with Villeneuve was "the rest" of stuff that makes the great driver become a great champion. Hard on cars, not consistent ... those things. In that he was not in the same league as Senna, Clark, or even Stewart, Lauda, Prost, etc. But yes, on car control and raw speed he was simply sublime - and the fact he proved it with some of the hardest and most ridiculous F1 cars ever, the ground effect ones, highlights the point

_________________"There are two kind of oval racers, those who have hit the wall and those who will hit it" - Mario Andretti

Agreed that Gilles was not especially delicate with his cars, Alberto. Enzo Ferrari used to call him "my little prince of destruction", which tells it all really.

To Gilles' defence, it should however also be noted that, except for 1979 and 1982 maybe, he never really had a car that was a championship contender.

In 1979, the Ferrari was in a league to win the championship and, till Monza, Gilles was in a position to crown himself champion. Footage of Monza 79 clearly shows that Gilles, running second, was faster than Jody Scheckter, running first, and could have passed him easy enough. Even Jody himself admitted that much. Yet, Gilles had given his word to Jody and respected it. So Jody won Monza and was champion.

It would bring Jody to say the following words at Gilles' funeral: "Gilles was not only the fastest man I ever knew, but also the most loyal and honest man I ever knew."

That makes Gilles great from an entirely different perspective. In what Jacky Ickx called "essentially a sport of egoïsts", Gilles showed true sportmanship.

In 1982, the Ferrari was also in shape, but everyone knows how that ended, unfortunatelly.

I have a fantastic docu somewhere at home about Gilles and his relation with first Jody and then Pironi. It's a Flemisch docu but large parts are spoken in English and French. E.g. Arnoux who talks about the faithfull weekend in May at Zolder, his eyes going wet, throat frogging up... Captivating stuff. I'll try to upload that somewhere tonight and will post a link here. Newyear's present .

Timo

_________________Visit Intersection Diaries: the tale of a young racing career.. And like us on Facebook.

A debate similar to the one about Stefan Bellof. A guy with undeniable talents, capable of incredible acts, good looks, charisma, standing at the verge of becoming one of the greatest in racing history, when fate struck merciless. The question of what could have been always seems to play a role there, too.